Pendry Natirar

NICE HOTEL

I came for a Sunday to enjoy fall foliage and get to see the property. I'd been aiming to visit here for a weekend during the summer or fall and wasn't sure. The property touts a cooking school but that is more of a special dinner or lunch event thing rather than a school. From the website descriptions, I thought that the larger suites were standalone cottages and more intimate. What is really here is a 3 story building with rooms on two sides of a floor; one facing a nice mountain ridge and the other facing a driveway. Suites are just larger rooms, and the rooms themselves and the building exterior looks like an upscale Marriott. They are building some residences but they look like box houses one next to the other. The main building is nice and has a very nice spa and decent gym. There is a large tranquility pool facing the mountain ridge, but it is not for swimming. There is also a bathing suit dryer. There is a large outdoor pool a few minutes walk away for summer swimming. The hotel has a tavern that serves breakfast and lunch; we had brunch on the terrace overlooking the ridge which is outdoors and great for non-winter meals. We did not overnight so we did not try Ninety Acres, the fine dining outlet. Food was mainly very good; they make good omelets and salad. Desert (toffee cake) was cold and tasted like it had been in the freezer. Our server went off shift after he took our credit card and never came back with it. What I didn't like was that we sat there for half an hour before any food came to the table, even a salad. I don't like that Pendry/Montage resorts don't put any food on the tables unless you order and pay for it. It's not hospitable given the very high cost of being there, and it's an important reason I don't like their resorts. Compass Sports offers various activities, such as guided hikes. Do not assume that you will be able to get a guided hike on any given day; some days they won't have someone to do it and the fact that we couldn't get a reservation for a hike on a Saturday was the reason we didn't stay the weekend. Most of the complimentary activities for guests are at 9am. Hotel guests want to be waking up and having breakfast at that hour. Our hiking guide told us that most guests want activities after 1pm but there is little on offer and that's why we didn't stay there for a weekend; we figured that if the weather was poor, we'd be bored as all heck. Hotel management tells employees that they want feedback from guests, not employees. These folks are the ones who talk the most with the guests. I always feel bad when I hear that from employees. This place is for corporate retreats and weddings. They take over the place when they happen. At the list price, it's a really expensive place to spend the weekend with not much around to do unless you want to eat and drink, walk and cuddle, and go to the spa. About the hike -- our hike was 75 minutes and pleasant with a nice and knowledgeable local guide. The fall foliage wasn'

Everything about our stay was spectacular: service level, property, farm, room, spa, sauna, shower, restaurants, food, espresso, flowers, fireplaces, scents, scenes, artwork, walking trails, valet, front desk & management. Even the fall foliage & weather were perfect! Thanks & congrats to the Pendry team for creating such a beautiful oasis in Peapack. We hope to return.

We actually never got to stay at Pendry Natirar. We booked our 2 night stay on May 6th for October 26-28. On October 15th we were told they had overbooked and they cancelled our reservation. One would think that booking five months in advance, prepaid in full and THEIR terms of no cancellations that they would honor our reservation. We had to change airline, rental car and cut our trip short. Totally unacceptable for this level of hotel.

Lovely location, beautiful grounds, terrific spa and gym, and great restaurant (Ninety Acres), but the service is glitchy (especially room service and restaurants that are not Ninety Acres), and the entry level rooms are wildly overpriced for what you get ($1,000/night - no bathtub, shower opnly has a shower head (no separate wand), no desk or anywhere else to do work, no closet space, hidden USB charging ports, inconveniently placed outlets). Reprice the rooms at $450/500 and the review becomes 4 stars.